History: Benjamin has concluded a specific section of his discourse and now observes the effect of his words on the assembled population. He could easily see that they had “fallen to the earth” and could readily interpret their response.
It is also possible that some of this process was part of a public pageant, one also known in the Old World:
On the theme of eternity, the closing sound of every royal acclamatio, King Benjamin ended his address, which so overpowered the people that they “had fallen to the earth, for the fear of the Lord had come upon them” (Mosiah 4:1). This was the kind of proskynesis at which Benjamin aimed! The proskynesis was the falling to the earth (literally, “kissing the ground”) in the presence of the king by which all the human race on the day of the coronation demonstrated its submission to divine authority; it was an unfailing part of the Old World New Year’s rites as of any royal audience.
Whether this rite would endure unchanged for more than 500 years and in two widely separated cultures is an unanswerable question. Nevertheless, it seems anthropologically sound that lowering oneself to the ground before a monarch communicates respect and humility in many cultures and contexts, whether it is specifically derived from the Old World or not.
If the event were purely spontaneous, a few of the most susceptible may have first fallen, then their neighbors, recognizing the appropriateness of the gesture, would have followed the example of those who began the posture. If the event were orchestrated, then the people would have expected the ceremony to include a particular point at which this action was required. Which scenario best fits Benjamin’s speech?
As I read Benjamin’s address, it seems more likely to me that the action was a spontaneous response to the power of the speech itself. Although Nibley suggests that the theme of eternity marked the end of a coronation declaration, the coronation event is buried in the text, a simple declaration many verses earlier. Benjamin has not yet reached his climax—giving his people their new name. Therefore, the people seemed overcome by the realization of these principles to them. He has pointedly addressed their recent difficulties, warned of the potential for continued contention, and spelled out the implications for both political prosperity/poverty and religious salvation/damnation. This was indeed a very personal speech, which they understood on a very personal level.
Text: This verse, a new chapter in the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon, presumably was also marked by as the beginning of a new section on the plates themselves. Mormon saw something in Benjamin’s discourse as concluding one part and beginning something new. It could have been as simple as the end of quoted material, since chapters frequently end at such a point.
Yet even though Benjamin’s discourse has reached a conclusion and we return to the narrative of the event itself, the event is not over. Mormon provides a transition at this point in a synopsis that occupies verses 1–3 and the very beginning of verse 4. It seems unlikely that he is simply copying the record on the plate because the text is clearly past tense and descriptive.